S3VEN - IC

The bug Vandore had slammed broke into a bunch of pieces that fell to the floor, leaving goo behind. The Zeteron also took out two of the bugs with his sword.

Slurp's blade melted through the large bug's head like a hot knife through butter. The insect collapsed to the floor, flailing around.

Only one of Grendar's shots connected with a bug, the others slipping through several pairs of inverted joints before smacking against the floor and fizzling out.

The gore from the bug Vandore had grabbed hit him all over his body, essentially only leaving his back cleared from the goo. His face was itching badly, but he didn't have time to itch. He began whirling around and around, with his sword straight in front of him. He was trying to catch several bugs at once with his whirling maneuver.

((Sorry for not posting in a while. ))
Reeq took one of the insects(sorry if godmod). They looked alot like the ancestors of the Sectrix. Reeq started to squeeze the insect, while stomping on the rest of the bugs cursing himself for taking a simple hunting knife. The knife was now somewhere unknown as Reeq danced away from sharp pincers.

Vandore's spinning didn't produce many results, as the bugs were low to the ground and hs sword was stuck straight out at his chest-height.

Reeq took out three bugs with his stomping, and a fourth that he had grabbed a hold of.

Fem'Nyla swung her blade at another bug, her breathing coming hard after so much dodging and running around. They seem to be thinning out in numbers, that's good.

((~25 of 35 bugs are down.))

"This is why I prefer melee weapons" Grendar muttered. He took to bashing the bugs with the butt of his weapon instead, backing away from them to avoid more damage than the gashes the bugs had already given him.

Flank was beginning to get bored with the wave. The bugs were hardly putting up a fight and posed no particular challenge to kill. In fact, they were annoying him. Because they died so frequently and in so many pieces the panels in the floor often neglected to open up and remove them from the arena. Instead, Flank found himself almost stumbling over every time he stepped on the sizable remains of one of the bugs. On top of that, his back was beginning to ache from being hunched over for so long.

After splitting the exoskeleton of yet another jabberbug, Flank cried out "These things are pathetic!"
He spoke too soon, because at that point an elusive insect latched its jaws onto his ankle, digging into the cut left by the cougar. It cut deeper into his skin, drawing blood again, and giving Flank a terrible, stinging pain.
With a cry, he twisted and brought his other foot onto the creatures body, and it snapped against the steel floor. Staggering back, he entered yet a lower crouch and leaned his upper body on his cannon, so that he took up some sort of tripod stance.

Slurp nearly fell off of Flank's cannon shoulder. She regained her grip and looked down. Flank is suffering with a nasty knee injury thanks to the Jabberbugs that took the oppertunity to sneak in a surprise attack. It's bleeding bad and there was nothing Slurp or the other mercs could do for now. Slurp can relate to that as she to is still in pain from her own injuries but they weren't as bad as Flank's. She tried her best ever pep talk to get her *teamate* to focus. "I know you think these guys are lame but they are dangerous even in swarms. I would take them on by ground but well thanks to a certain incident, I wouldn't risk it." Slurp tried to look at Flank's cyborg eye (which is his stomach creeps Slurp a little) and asked: "Do you think you can hold on till this is over?"

The bugs went at Micaneil very quickly. Without having a proper way to react, he instinctively batted one of them away with the butt of the carbine, not knowing another one of them was behind his left ankle.

"I know you think these guys are lame," Slurp spoke to Flank, "but they are dangerous, particularly in swarms. I would take them on by myself on the ground but... well, thanks to a certain incident, I wouldn't risk it."

Flank twisted his head around to face the minute pod on his shoulder and said "That's your inspiration? Not feeling any better."
The bugs were finally thinning out, around a half dozen remained, so Flank lumbered on to seek a few out. He used his cannon like a metal stilt to take some of the weight off his injured ankle, so his gait became stiff and tilted, with neither flexibility nor subtlety. Half of his vision twisted and careened as he brought his cannon forward and back with each step, while the hooded cybernetic lens in his chest gazed unblinkingly at the floor ahead of him, owing to the angle at which he leaned forward.

The moment a jabberbug came into the latter view, he rushed forward and took a swipe at it with his assault rifle.

"Meh that's all I could come up with but I do feel sorry for you. Being in pain sucks terribly." Another Jabberbug came in Flank's vision and came at it while poor Slurp had to hold her grip hard..again. He had swiped it aside with his assualt rifle like it ment nothing to the Ravis. Slurp heartly laughed with such joy. "Now that's what I'm on about!, and if any of them try come up with any more funny ideas to surprise you they'll be reciving a huge one from me!" Slurp moved into a better position to get a better view of the blasted insects and attack any of them that climb up on Flank. "I'll try my best to help out. You can count on me!"

The combined efforts of Grendar, Flank, and Micaneil spelled the deaths for the remainder of the jabberbugs. Fem'Nyla cleaved her way through the final bug, exhastion beginning to kick in. She looked around and saw that the other mercs were suffering similarly.

As had become customary, the holoscreen flickered on to show the reporters.

"...and we're just coming back from the end of the fourth wave. There have been a few developments as far as the voting is concerned."

"Yes there have. Flank, Micaneil, and Slurp are all tied for first place at 16%, Fem'Nyla at 15%, Grendar at 14%, Reeq at 12%, and Vandore at 11%."

"One of those three top contestants could easily take the number one spot in this next round..."


Once the bodies of the jabberbugs had been disposed of, Drenic flicked the comms on and addressed the group,

"You are all being alloted a five minute break before this final round. Rest yourself well. Oh yes, Reeq, here is a replacement weapon, aince you seem to have lost your original."

A platform slid up in the center of the arena, delivering a blade identical to the one Reeq had chosen at the start of Room 1.

Reeq took up the knife. He still silently cursed himself for not taking a gun. Or a gun with a bayonet, he thought he'd seen one.
Reeq inspected the blade with his thumb and started to sharpen it against his slightly armored kneepad.

As Slurp heard the results and to her relief a five minute break, Slurp climbed down back to the floor and thanked the Ravis for his help. "I think I should be fine to be able to look after myself again but if I'm in the spot of bother, assitstance is always welcome." She saw Reeq picking up his replacement weapon after losing it in one of the rounds. Slurp felt sorry for the poor guy. Losing a weapon like that is a nightmare especially if your at the mercy of bad creatures like the Jabberbugs or the cougar hybrids. Seeing this reminded her that Slurp can finally use the Akol-D5 mech suit that she saved up for the final round. It's not armed with rocket launchers or any other type of weapon. It's only been used for reaching things that would otherwise be to high for Slurp in fact it's only a helper mech suit. Although the only helping it will do is to make sure Slurp (and possibly the other mercs) surrive the last onsalught. Slurp looked for Drenic whose in charge of arena weapons and belongings. She found him eventually and asked for her request. "Would it be cool if I can get my Akol-D5 mech suit? I can assure you it's totally not armed." While Slurp waited she applied some sticky bandages that helped with healing cuts on the skin. It works wonders but can cause itchyness to the wearer.

Drenic looked through the monitors at Slurp, remembering that his people had picked her up with a mech suit of some sort. Instead of answering her, he flicked a switch on his master control board. The result was a panel in the arena sliding back and producing Slurp's Akol-D5.

Slurp saw her Akol-D5 mech suit came into view as it came a bit further away from the panel. She breathed and smiled. Slurp is about to have more fun then ever now that she can finally use this mean machine (metaphoriacly speaking). "Thanks for that Drenic!" Slurp ran to it and immeditly enterd by going through the mech's foot. After listening to a minute elavator song, Slurp reached to the control area. Here Slurp uses an odd mechinisim that the Akol-D5 copies it's owner's body movements. Slurp knew what to do. After putting on her last itchy sticky plaster on her cuts, she procceded to stepping on the odd mechinisim. As her feet touched it's surface, it glowed with intensity and whirred to life. A visior mask then appeard on Slurp's face, allowing her to see through the Akol-D5's vision. To make sure the Akol-D5 is functioning correctly, Slurp gestured a wave to the other mercs and the mech suit copied it. Satisfied with herself, Slurp rejoined with the others. The Akol-D5 is around the same hight as the other mercs which is not a big deal.

"Well, that wasn't that bad. I was expecting harder." Grendar said "Though im regretting not using a melee weapon...."

After waving Slurp off, Flank found himself sitting on the floor, breathing hard. Finishing off the jabberbugs was strenuous work at best, and his ankle didn't seem like it wanted to stop bleeding. He shuffled forward and lay down on his back, lifting his injured leg and resting it on his other knee to keep the blood from rushing down and out of the wound.

He checked his ammunition a second time: thirty-nine remained, so he only used five bullets since the beginning of round three. This made him particularly happy.

The insidious ringing persisted. Reaching what Micaneil thought of as the highest point of the ringing, he felt as if he couldn't hear himself think, and combined with the slight pounding of a headache, he would definitely be a bit mentally hindered in the next round. He was somewhat aware of this after he decided looking down the barrel of the carbine would be a smart thing to do.

He checked his cartage. 10 bullets remained. Astonished by the lack of bullets in a round which he didn't fire a single one, he muttered, "How the hell did this happen? Wait, I must've fired a couple 3-shotters when that jabberbug tripped me, but... wow. 10 bullets in a weapon that can go fully automatic. That's not a good sign." His muttering soon ended when the smallest merc received some sort of exoskeleton.

Slurp re-joined with the other mercs in her Akol-D5 mech suit. She tried to speak to them but hadn't realized that the speech function is broken. Slurp frowned. Dammit I forgot to fix that speech box before those *giants* took it away from me. Oh boy this is going to be swell, she mutterd. With litterly a minute left to go, Slurp quickly attended to the speech box and used whatever she had. To help pass the time, Slurp selected a random song from her chosen playlist and began to work. She wasen't sure if the other mercs could hear it as well but even if they didn't, they are to busy tending to themselves.

Their 5-minute break having been fully exhausted, Drenic flicked one final switch, starting wave 5.

This wave was very much unlike the others, in that it only consisted of one creature for the mercenaries to fight. The largest door shuddered open to reveal this creature, the very sight of it freezing one Nephid ex-supermodel by her feet.

It was towering at nearly 11 feet to the shoulder, a perfect mix of feline and canine proportions, and without a doubt one of the most vicious predators known to the galaxy: the Velu Panther. This put the mercenaries in the exact position they had been quizzed about in their entrance exam: "How would you take on a charging Velu Panther?"

Known for their size, strength, and unusual build, Velu Panthers are dangerous in every realm of possibility. They sport an extra pair of front limbs, granting them with the muscle power needed to exceed speeds of any creature its size. Their tails have small sensing devices on them, allowing them to locate prey even in complete dark, or in the event of blindness. A ridge of spines grace the males' backs, as well as three rows of teeth in their mouths.

Drenic smiled. Oh, how I just love a good dash of irony...

When Flank had taken the entrance exam, he didn't know what a Velu Panther actually looked like. He just assumed that they were the size of the cougars he had fought in round one, and it showed in his answer: "I would try to jump over it and club it with my cannon." Not going to work, he couldn't jump any higher than 10 feet.
He was glad, then, that he had managed to save up 39 vacuum bullets for the final round.

Heaving a breath, Flank got onto his feet and got the assault rifle ready. His plan would be to get around it and then shoot at its feet just like the tigers. If it charged directly at his like the cougars, then he'd just hope that 39 vacuum bullets and a constant line of sight would be enough to save him. Then, a thought occurred: What is it with this challenge and giant cats?

Slurp remembered she had put, "Since she's smaller then the creature, she can easily slip in underneath it's underbelly and cling on to it. She then grabs her dagger and thrusts it between where the head is connected to the neck" as her answer to the entrance exam. True this Velu Panther is certainly big and she could done excatly like what she wrote. However the odds of that happening was looking grim. This thing can easily crush Slurp in one hit if she's not careful. Slurp moaned. This is going to take more then just brain power to fell this Velu Panther and she still has her Akol-D5 mech suit that offers just protection. "If only a brilliant plan came into my head right now.."

Reeq clappered with his pincers. His fasette eyes saw thousands of the velu panther.
He didn't enjoy the irony as much as Drenic.
He grabbed the knife, it had been sharpend to the extent that it could slice a paper.
"Aim for the neck-k-k."
Reeq adressed to the other mercs, his pincers constant moving making the 'k' repeat.

The Akol-D5 mech's *voicebox* is still on the fritz but Slurp could guess that Reeq suggested they all focus at it's neck since he kept repeating K. They might cause it to stumble but might not make a dent. They all had to try anyway. However the mech isn't armed with fire power so the only way it can be useful if the Akol-D5 got in close combat with the Velu Panther. She tried to gesture this to the other mercs.

"Gotcha."
As soon as Flank heard Reeq's instruction, he broke into a run, drawing a very wide curve to the Panther's left. It wasn't a good run, his ankle still hurt, but it seemed to have stopped bleeding as profusely as before. He thought that if he got away from where the other mercs were gathered, he would be dismissed as a minor threat.

Nonetheless, he still had to take care when dealing with such a huge animal, one that could easily bend his reinforced bones with little effort. He kept his stance low, his wings folded, and his cannon close to his body, trying to make himself look as submissive as possible. He also slowed down and made an effort to back away while getting around the behemoth.

Once he had covered enough distance to get a good aim at the creature's neck, he dropped into a crouch, took aim, and fired five bullets in a short burst toward the creature's neck and torso, hoping to cripple one of its shoulders.